Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree

Last updated

Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree is a Scottish fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in his Celtic Fairy Tales. [1] It is Aarne-Thompson type 709, Snow White. Others of this type include Bella Venezia , Nourie Hadig , La petite Toute-Belle and Myrsina . [2]

Contents

Plot

A king had a wife, Silver-Tree, and a daughter, Gold-Tree. One day they walked by a pond, and Silver-Tree asked a trout if she were the most beautiful queen in the world, whereupon the trout said that Gold-Tree was more beautiful. Silver-Tree took to her bed and declared she would never be well unless she ate Gold-Tree's heart and liver. A king's son had asked to marry Gold-Tree, so her father agreed and sent them off; then he gave his wife the heart and liver of a he-goat, at which she got up from her bed.

Silver-Tree went back to the trout, which told her Gold-Tree was still more beautiful, and living abroad with a prince. Silver-Tree begged a ship of her husband to visit her daughter. The prince was away hunting; Gold-Tree was terrified at the sight of the ship. The servants locked her away in a room so she could tell her mother she could not come out. Silver-Tree persuaded her to put her little finger through the keyhole, so she could kiss it, and when Gold-Tree did, Silver-Tree stuck a poisoned thorn into it.

When the prince returned, he was grief-stricken, and could not persuade himself to bury Gold-Tree, because she was so beautiful. He kept her body in a room. Having married for a second time, he would not let his new wife into the room. One day, he forgot the key, and the new wife went in. She tried to wake Gold-Tree, and found the thorn in her finger. Pulling it out, she revived Gold-Tree. Because of the wakened one's identity, the second wife offered to leave, but their husband refused to allow it.

Silver-Tree went back to the trout, who told her what had happened. Silver-Tree took the ship again. The prince was hunting again, but the second wife said that the two of them must meet her. Silver-Tree offered a poisoned drink. The second wife said that it was the custom that the person who offered the drink drank of it first. Silver-Tree put the drink to her mouth, and the second wife struck her arm so that some went into her throat. She fell down dead.

The prince, Gold-Tree, and the second wife lived happily thereafter.

Analysis

Tale type

The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as type ATU 709, "Snow White". [3]

Motifs

Folklorist Joseph Jacobs commented on variants and motifs of the tale in the Notes of his Celtic Fairy Tales. [4] He suggested the migration of the tale from abroad. He also remarked that publisher and Celtic folklorist Alfred Nutt called Jacobs's attention to the Breton lai of Eliduc . [5]

According to Alan Bruford, Donald A. MacDonald and Christine Shojaei Kawan, the speaking trout in a pool replaces the mirror in Gaelic, Scottish and Irish variants of the tale type ATU 709, as part of the Irish-Scottish oikotype of ATU 709. [6] [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snow White</span> German fairy tale

"Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection Grimms' Fairy Tales and numbered as Tale 53. The original German title was Sneewittchen, a Low German form, but the first version gave the High German translation Schneeweißchen, and the tale has become known in German by the mixed form Schneewittchen. The Grimms completed their final revision of the story in 1854, which can be found in the in 1957 version of Grimms' Fairy Tales.

The Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index is a catalogue of folktale types used in folklore studies. The ATU Index is the product of a series of revisions and expansions by an international group of scholars: originally composed in German by Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne (1910), the index was translated into English, revised, and expanded by American folklorist Stith Thompson, and later further revised and expanded by German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther (2004). The ATU Index, along with Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (1932) - with which it is used in tandem -, is an essential tool for folklorists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The White Snake</span> German fairy tale

"The White Snake" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in Grimm's Fairy Tales. It is of Aarne–Thompson type 673, and includes an episode of type 554.

Catskin is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs, in More English Fairy Tales. Marian Roalfe Cox, in her pioneering study of Cinderella, identified as one of the basic types, the Unnatural Father, contrasting with Cinderella itself and Cap O' Rushes.

How Ian Direach got the Blue Falcon is a Scottish fairy tale, collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands. He recorded it from a quarryman in Knockderry, Roseneath, named Angus Campbell.

"Bella Venezia" is an Italian fairy tale collected by Italo Calvino in his Italian Folktales. Calvino selected this variant, where the heroine meets robbers, rather than others that contain dwarfs, because he believed the dwarfs were probably an importation from Germany. It is Aarne-Thompson type 709, Snow White. Others of this type include Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree, Nourie Hadig, La petite Toute-Belle, and Myrsina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Battle of the Birds</span> Scottish fairy tale

The Battle of the Birds is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in his Popular Tales of the West Highlands. He recorded it in 1859 from a fisherman near Inverary, John Mackenzie and was, at the time, building dykes on the Ardkinglas estate. Joseph Jacobs took it from there for his Celtic Fairy Tales and added some additional elements.

Fair, Brown and Trembling is an Irish fairy tale collected by Jeremiah Curtin in Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland and Joseph Jacobs in his Celtic Fairy Tales.

Conall Cra Bhuidhe or Conall Yellowclaw is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Sea-Maiden</span> Scottish fairy tale

The Sea-Maiden is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands, listing his informant as John Mackenzie, fisherman, near Inverary. Joseph Jacobs included it in Celtic Fairy Tales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener</span> Irish fairy tale

The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener is an Irish fairy tale collected by Patrick Kennedy in Fireside Stories of Ireland. Joseph Jacobs included it in More Celtic Fairy Tales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Love for Three Oranges (fairy tale)</span> Italian fairy tale

"The Love for Three Oranges" or "The Three Citrons" is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in the Pentamerone. It is the concluding tale, and the one the heroine of the frame story uses to reveal that an imposter has taken her place.

The Young Slave is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone.

Nourie Hadig is an Armenian fairy tale collected by Susie Hoogasian-Villa in 100 Armenian Tales. Her informant was Mrs. Akabi Mooradian, an Armenian living in Detroit.

Fairer-than-a-Fairy is a literary fairy tale published anonymously in the 1718 fairy tale collection Nouveaux contes de fées. It is attributed to the Chevalier de Mailly. Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book.

"Snow White" is a German fairy tale known across much of Europe and is today one of the most famous fairy tales worldwide. There has been debate over possible origins of the tale and whether it could be an amalgam of other stories, have mythical roots, or be inspired by a real person. It falls within the classification of Type 709 in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index.

The Calumniated Wife is a motif in traditional narratives, numbered K2110.1 in Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. It entails a wife being falsely accused of, and often punished for, some crime or sin. This motif is at the centre of a number of traditional plots, being associated with tale-types 705–712 in the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index of tale-types.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adventures of Gilla Na Chreck An Gour</span> Irish fairy tale

Adventures of Gilla Na Chreck An Gour is an Irish fairy tale collected by folklorist Patrick Kennedy and published in Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts (1866). The tale was also published by Irish poet Alfred Perceval Graves in his Irish Fairy Book (1909). Joseph Jacobs published the tale as The Lad with the Goat-Skin in his Celtic Fairy Tales.

Lady Featherflight is an American fairy tale first published in 1891, by W. W. Newell and collected from an oral source in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the tale, a traveler is offered hospitality by Lady Featherflight, a giant's daughter. He is forced to perform a number of tasks for her father, but Featherflight offers him assistance through her control over birds. They eventually elope and steal her father's treasure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richilde (fairy tale)</span> German fairy tale

"Richilde" is a German literary fairy tale, written by Johann Karl August Musäus, published in 1782 in the first volume of his collection Volksmärchen der Deutschen. It is Aarne–Thompson type 709, Snow White, focused on the character of the wicked stepmother.

References

  1. Joseph Jacobs, Celtic Fairy Tales, "Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree Archived 2016-10-19 at the Wayback Machine "
  2. Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Archived 2013-05-22 at the Wayback Machine "
  3. Ashliman, D. L. A Guide to Folktales in the English Language: Based on the Aarne-Thompson Classification System. Bibliographies and Indexes in World Literature, vol. 11. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1987. p. 144. ISBN   0-313-25961-5.
  4. Jacobs, Joseph. Celtic Fairy Tales. London: David Nutt. 1892. p. 252.
  5. Jacobs, Joseph. Celtic Fairy Tales. London: David Nutt. 1892. p. 252 (footnote nr. 1).
  6. Bruford, Alan; MacDonald, Donald A. Scottish traditional tales. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2003 [1994]. p. 449.
  7. Kawan, Christine Shojaei. "Schneewittchen (AaTh/ATU 709)" [Snow White (ATU 709)]. In: Enzyklopädie des Märchens Band 12: Schinden, Schinder – Sublimierung. Edited by Rudolf Wilhelm Brednich; Hermann Bausinger; Wolfgang Brückner; Daniel Drascek; Helge Gerndt; Ines Köhler-Zülch; Lutz Röhrich; Klaus Roth. De Gruyter, 2016 [2007]. p. 133. ISBN   978-3-11-019936-9.